Sodom and Shechem: Villages, Not Cities

ʿIr in the Bible

The word עִיר (ʿir) occurs some 1,093 times in the Hebrew Bible. English translations of the Bible render almost all occurrences of ʿir as “city.” ^[1] This fits many occurrences of the word, but is that what ʿir always means?

The word עִיר is probably related to the verbal root ע.ו.ר (ʿur), which carries the sense of “protect.”^[2] Chicks find safety inside the nest, when the mother bird watches over them:

^{דברים לב:יא} כְּנֶשֶׁר יָעִיר קִנּוֹ עַל גּוֹזָלָיו יְרַחֵף...

^{Deut 32:11} Like an eagle who protects his nestlings, gliding down to his young…

Similarly, Bildad says to Job that God will protect him if he is righteous:

^{איוב ח:ו} אִם זַךְ וְיָשָׁר אָתָּה כִּי עַתָּה יָעִיר עָלֶיךָ וְשִׁלַּם נְוַת צִדְקֶךָ.

^{Job 8:6} If you are blameless and upright, He will protect you, and grant well-being to your righteous home.

The safety of towns/villages contrasts with dangers “in the field” – that is, outside of settlements, whether out of fear of wild animals (as in Judg 14:5, 1 Sam 17:34–36, 1 Kgs 13:24, 2 Kgs 2:24, among others) or bands of marauders (Judg 6:3–4, 18:11; 1 Sam 27:8–9; 2 Sam 15:18–20, etc.) Living in the vicinity of relatives and like-minded neighbors, inside a space with a surrounding wall, obviated much of that danger.^[3]

Safety for Stored Items

In addition to bodily safety, ʿarim (plural of ʿir) also provided centralized storage space for harvested crops and other goods. Thus, Joseph builds ʿarim on Pharaoh’s behalf when he begins the process of storing grain from the seven years of bumper crops:

^{בראשית מא:מח} וַיִּקְבֹּץ אֶת כָּל אֹכֶל שֶׁבַע שָׁנִים אֲשֶׁר הָיוּ בְּאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם וַיִּתֶּן אֹכֶל בֶּעָרִים אֹכֶל שְׂדֵה הָעִיר אֲשֶׁר סְבִיבֹתֶיהָ נָתַן בְּתוֹכָהּ.

^{Gen 41:48} And he gathered all the grain of the seven years that the land of Egypt was enjoying, and stored the grain in the ʿarim; he put in each ʿir the grain of the fields around it.

Farmers and herders could bring yields to storage sites in ʿarim and receive a measure of precious metals (the silver shekel is the common biblical unit) in exchange. Shekels could later be redeemed for stored goods or given to artisans and merchants in exchange for goods and services (as in 1 Sam 9:8 and 13:21).^[4]

The Pleasant ʿIr

Composed in the early Persian period,^[5] Psalm 107 offers us a glimpse of an Israelite ʿir moshab, “inhabited ʿir,” held up as the ideal destination, a place of safety and security:

^{תהלים קז:לה} יָשֵׂם מִדְבָּר לַאֲגַם מַיִם וְאֶרֶץ צִיָּה לְמֹצָאֵי מָיִם. ^קז:לו וַיּוֹשֶׁב שָׁם רְעֵבִים וַיְכוֹנְנוּ עִיר מוֹשָׁב. ^קז:לז וַיִּזְרְעוּ שָׂדוֹת וַיִּטְּעוּ כְרָמִים וַיַּעֲשׂוּ פְּרִי תְבוּאָה.

^{Ps 107:35} He (YHWH) turns the wilderness into pools, parched land into springs of water. ^107:36 There He settles the hungry; they build an ʿir in which to settle. ^107:37 They sow fields and plant vineyards that yield a fruitful harvest.

For the psalmist, the ʿir, a place in which to reside, is central to the good life of farming and winemaking.

Cain’s ʿIr

The first ʿir in the Bible is built by Cain. After being forced out of farming as a punishment for killing his brother, YHWH tells Cain to wander the earth. But Cain, instead, builds an ʿir:

^{בראשית ד:טז} וַיֵּצֵא קַיִן מִלִּפְנֵי יְ־הוָה וַיֵּשֶׁב בְּאֶרֶץ נוֹד קִדְמַת עֵדֶן. ^ד:יז וַיֵּדַע קַיִן אֶת אִשְׁתּוֹ וַתַּהַר וַתֵּלֶד אֶת חֲנוֹךְ וַיְהִי בֹּנֶה עִיר וַיִּקְרָא שֵׁם הָעִיר כְּשֵׁם בְּנוֹ חֲנוֹךְ.

^{Gen 4:16} Cain left the presence of YHWH and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden. ^4:17 Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch. And he then founded an ʿir and named the ʿir after his son Enoch.

Given the placement of this story in the early narratives of Genesis, speaking about the establishment of the world order, some scholars connect Cain’s ʿir with Assyrian and Babylonian metropolitan cities founded by Nimrod, representing Israel’s future enemies:

^{בראשית י:י} וַתְּהִי רֵאשִׁית מַמְלַכְתּוֹ בָּבֶל וְאֶרֶךְ וְאַכַּד וְכַלְנֵה בְּאֶרֶץ שִׁנְעָר. ^י:יא מִן הָאָרֶץ הַהִוא יָצָא אַשּׁוּר וַיִּבֶן אֶת נִינְוֵה וְאֶת רְחֹבֹת עִיר וְאֶת כָּלַח. ^י:יב וְאֶת רֶסֶן בֵּין נִינְוֵה וּבֵין כָּלַח הִוא הָעִיר הַגְּדֹלָה.

^{Gen 10:10} The mainstays of his kingdom were Babylon, Erech, Akkad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar. ^10:11 From that land Ashur went forth and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-ir, Calah, ^10:12 and Resen between Nineveh and Calah, that is the great city.

The negative perception of cities is especially clear in the story of the Tower of Babel, which begins when all the people of the earth wish to build an ʿir with a very high tower:

^{בראשית יא:ד} וַיֹּאמְרוּ הָבָה נִבְנֶה לָּנוּ עִיר וּמִגְדָּל וְרֹאשׁוֹ בַשָּׁמַיִם וְנַעֲשֶׂה לָּנוּ שֵׁם פֶּן נָפוּץ עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ.

^{Gen 11:4} And they said, “Come, let us build us an ʿir, and a tower with its top in the sky, to make a name for ourselves; else we shall be scattered all over the world.”

YHWH sees what the people are up to and puts a stop to it:

^{בראשית יא:ה} וַיֵּרֶד יְ־הוָה לִרְאֹת אֶת הָעִיר וְאֶת הַמִּגְדָּל אֲשֶׁר בָּנוּ בְּנֵי הָאָדָם.... ^יא:ח וַיָּפֶץ יְ־הוָה אֹתָם מִשָּׁם עַל פְּנֵי כָל הָאָרֶץ וַיַּחְדְּלוּ לִבְנֹת הָעִיר.

^{Gen 11:5} YHWH came down to look at the ʿir and tower that man had built… ^11:8 And YHWH scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth; and they stopped building the ʿir.

The story ends by explaining that this ʿir—clearly a city in this context—was Babylon itself.

The parallel with Cain is stark: the account of the tower of Babel features people moving east (v. 1) before building the ʿir to establish their name, reminding readers of Cain’s eastward journey followed by his construction of an ʿir named after his son.^[6]

Nevertheless, one of the recurring motifs of Genesis 1–11 is the perversion of things that are created to be good. This is typified by Cain’s descendant Lamech converting YHWH’s gift of protection to Cain into a “license to kill” without fear of retribution (Gen 4:23–24). Thus, Cain’s establishment of an ʿir may have been a positive development that was perverted by Nimrod and his mega-cities.

Indeed, unless this is dismissed as an anachronism or simply a desire to make Cain the inventor of cities, the story can hardly be envisioning Cain’s ʿir as a large city like Nineveh or Babylon. Unlike Nimrod, Cain is not depicted as a king or warrior. He is just an ordinary farmer who offers some of his produce to YHWH, and when the offering is rejected, gets angry and kills his brother in a rage of jealousy.

After finding himself wandering in exile, Cain recovers enough to marry, have children, and become productive, yet he is not described as having great power or a large following. The construction of a large, metropolitan city (as per Genesis 11) would have been a superhuman feat for an individual, perhaps comparable to the hundred years needed for Noah to construct the ark (compare Gen 7:6 with 5:32).^[7] And, narratively speaking, what would have been the point of building a city in the early days of humanity, before people “began to multiply on the face of the ground” (Gen 6:1)?

In contrast to a “city,” a typical village, familiar to Israelite scribes, required only a simple wall surrounding a few acres of land, and some planning within that acreage of space for housing and storage for a few hundred people. And this is very likely the meaning of ʿir in this story. Indeed, the word ʿir has a broad range of meanings from a giant metropolis to a tiny village, or anything in between.

The Difference Between Cities and Villages

In the 1950s, V. Gordon Childe (1892–1957), an Australian/British archaeologist of European prehistory, argued that what distinguishes cities from towns and villages were a series of urban features, including the presence of full-time artisans, artists, and scribes, and a political organization based on residency rather than kinship.^[8]

As Greg Woolf, a scholar who specializes in the study of ancient cities, notes, some of these features are identifiable in the archaeological record: Just as modern cities feature structural variety according to the needs and preferences of different peoples, businesses, and government institutions, the presence of specialists and the mixing of unrelated peoples would have stimulated tangible variations in the structures within an ancient city. ^[9]

Specialists are a feature of a “surplus” society, in which most individuals strive to produce more than enough of one commodity that can be exchanged for money or credit, which can be used to purchase other needs and wants.^[10] This organization of labor enhances a society’s economic output as individuals and groups typically produce more when they focus on one type of item, than when they are entirely self-sufficient.^[11]

Ancient Settlements

The ancient world did have settlements with populations in the tens of thousands that can properly be described as cities. Several of these were likely known to Israelite scribes, including Memphis (peak Iron Age population of 100,000 residents) and Thebes (50,000) in Egypt, and Babylon (200,000) and Nineveh (100,000) in Mesopotamia.^[12] But settlements in ancient Israel were far smaller.

Following Childe and Woolf, the only settlements in ancient Israel that possibly qualified as ancient cities were Jerusalem at its 8^th–7^th century peak, which may have attained a population of 15,000; and Samaria, whose population in the 8^th century may have been as high as 12,000.^[13] After the capitals, the next largest settlement was probably 8^th century Dan, with some 5,000 residents. Other than these, it is unlikely that any settlement in biblical Israel had a population greater than 3,000, too few to support many full-time specialists.^[14]

Given that archaeology and sociology of the biblical era demonstrate that most ancient Israelite settlements are best described as villages, not cities or even towns, absent literary indicators to the contrary, the word ʿir in the biblical texts should likely be translated as “village,” whose main function was to provide safe housing and storage facilities.^[15] This helps clarify not just the story of Cain’s ʿir, but also other stories in Genesis which make little sense if we envision them taking place in full-fledged cities as opposed to more modest towns and villages.

The Sinful Village of Sodom

The story of Lot’s escape from Sodom is a good example. When the angels come to the “city,” and Lot takes them in for the night, all the men of Sodom surround his home:

^{בראשית יט:ד} טֶרֶם יִשְׁכָּבוּ וְאַנְשֵׁי הָעִיר אַנְשֵׁי סְדֹם נָסַבּוּ עַל הַבַּיִת מִנַּעַר וְעַד זָקֵן כָּל הָעָם מִקָּצֶה.

^{Gen 19:4} They had not yet lain down, when the townspeople, the men of Sodom, young and old—all the people to the last man—gathered about the house.

Even the earlier story, which describes Sodom as one of five ʿarim at war with the rulers of four empires, tips its hand when it describes Abram’s decisive intervention with an army of only 318 men (Gen 14:14). In other words, the authors are imagining towns with populations of only a few hundred each at most.

The Destruction of the Village of Shechem

Similarly, when the sons of Jacob trick the Shechemites into having themselves circumcised, Hamor, ruler of Shechem makes a speech to the people:

^{בראשית לד:כ} וַיָּבֹא חֲמוֹר וּשְׁכֶם בְּנוֹ אֶל שַׁעַר עִירָם וַיְדַבְּרוּ אֶל אַנְשֵׁי עִירָם לֵאמֹר. ^כ:כא הָאֲנָשִׁים הָאֵלֶּה שְׁלֵמִים הֵם אִתָּנוּ וְיֵשְׁבוּ בָאָרֶץ וְיִסְחֲרוּ אֹתָהּ וְהָאָרֶץ הִנֵּה רַחֲבַת יָדַיִם לִפְנֵיהֶם אֶת בְּנֹתָם נִקַּח לָנוּ לְנָשִׁים וְאֶת בְּנֹתֵינוּ נִתֵּן לָהֶם.

^{Gen 34:20} So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the public place of their ʿir and spoke to their fellow townsmen, saying, ^34:21 “These people are our friends; let them settle in the land and move about in it, for the land is large enough for them; we will take their daughters to ourselves as wives and give our daughters to them…”

A town meeting of this sort, with everyone gathered around the gate, does not make sense in a city of thousands of men. Moreover, how many daughters could Jacob and his sons have such that it would make a difference to the locals and they can think of merging? The story is clearly envisioning a small village. This is also clear from when the entire male population is circumcised in one day, after which they are all slaughtered by only two brothers:

^{בראשית לד:כד} וַיִּשְׁמְעוּ אֶל חֲמוֹר וְאֶל שְׁכֶם בְּנוֹ כָּל יֹצְאֵי שַׁעַר עִירוֹ וַיִּמֹּלוּ כָּל זָכָר כָּל יֹצְאֵי שַׁעַר עִירוֹ. ^לד:כה וַיְהִי בַיּוֹם הַשְּׁלִישִׁי בִּהְיוֹתָם כֹּאֲבִים וַיִּקְחוּ שְׁנֵי בְנֵי יַעֲקֹב שִׁמְעוֹן וְלֵוִי אֲחֵי דִינָה אִישׁ חַרְבּוֹ וַיָּבֹאוּ עַל הָעִיר בֶּטַח וַיַּהַרְגוּ כָּל זָכָר.

^{Gen 34:24} All who went out of the gate of his ʿir heeded Hamor and his son Shechem, and all males, all those who went out of the gate of his town, were circumcised. ^34:25 On the third day, when they were in pain, Simeon and Levi, two of Jacob’s sons, brothers of Dinah, took each his sword, came upon the city unmolested, and slew all the males.

Clearly, the Shechem of this story, like Cain’s ʿir and the ʿir of Sodom, is best described as a village, one small enough to covet Jacob’s possessions and daughters, and to be conquered by his sons.